Congress Considers U.S.-Israel Military Merger in NDAA Bill
September 16, 2026—President Donald Trump is planning to send Israel billions of dollars worth of weapons, including bunker-busting 2,000-pound bombs, financed by U.S. taxpayers. If cleared, it will be one of the largest-ever shipments of heavy bombs to Israel. It comes as support for Israel is waning in the United States, amid Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza, settler attacks against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, and continued military encroachment in Lebanon. It also comes as the United States remains absorbed in a war with Iran.
The Washington Post was one of the first to report the pending transaction. Reportedly, the Trump administration has informally given members of Congress notice. However, the government has not yet officially announced the arms sales yet through its official arms—the Defense Security Cooperation Agency or the State Department.
Massive Bunker-Busting Bombs
The $2.8 billion package reportedly includes:
- 20,000 MK-84s: These are massive unguided bombs often called “The Hammer” due to their destructive power that can create larger craters in the Earth; The made-in-America “dumb bombs” are manufactured by General Dynamics in Scranton, Pennsylvania, McAlester, Oklahoma, Crane, Indiana.
- 20,000 BLU-117s: Like the Mk-84 bombs, these are 2,000-pound explosives cause massive damage to buildings and to humans through shrapnel fragmentation that acts like thousands of high-speed bullets. They are made by General Dynamics and BAE Systems produce them, typically in Garland, Texas, McAlester, Oklahoma, and Kingsport, Tennessee.
- 20,000 I-2000 Penetrator warheads: These “bunker busting bombs” are designed to puncture through heavily fortified targets.
U.S. Taxpayer-Financed
Although the weapons transfer is often referred to as a “sale,” it would be financed by U.S. taxpayers through grants. The mechanism is referred to as U.S. Foreign Military Financing. The most recent weapons sale comes as U.S. debt tops $40 trillion, inflation is persistent and rising, and Democrats are running on campaigns against foreign entanglements and spending more money domestically. Congress created these grants in 1976 through the Arms Export Control Act. They finance weapons sales to Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Ukraine, Taiwan, Poland, Albania, Columbia, Ecuador, Panama, and Peru. Historically, Israel is the largest recipient.
US-Israel 10-Year Plan
Arms sales to Israel is coming under increasing scrutiny, particularly among the public but also in Congress. Israel is the largest recipient of U.S. foreign aid. It’s received more than $174 billion in U.S. aid from 1948 to 2025, CRS reported.
The United States and Israel are operating under a 10-year Memorandum of Understanding providing U.S. military aid to Israel, subject to congressional approval. That runs through the fiscal year 2028. In February 2025, Trump circumvented congressional review of arms sales to Israel, declaring an “emergency.” The next month, Trump issued export licenses for automatic rifles to Israel. Then, earlier this year in January, Trump shipped $6.67 billion in arms sale to Israel along with $9 billion to Saudi Arabia.
Politically Unpopular
Politically, the sale is problematic, despite Congress’s longstanding ironclad support for Israel.
The proposed weapons transfer takes place amid public backlash against the U.S. war in Iran and its unconditional support for Israel. On Tuesday, September 15, the House passed a measure calling for limits on the president’s war powers. Seven Republicans joined all Democrats to pass the concurrent resolution calling for an end to hostilities with Iran. The House cleared H.Con.Res.93 on a 220-204 vote.
In April, Pew Research found that 60 percent of Americans have an unfavorable view of Israel. Majorities in both political parties under age 50 rated Israel and its prime minister negatively. Increasingly, citizens are pushing back against U.S. unconditional support for Israel, including in lawsuits against the U.S. government and weapons manufacturers.
Proposed US-Israel Military Merger
As public opinion evolved against the alliance, lobbyists on Capitol Hill are adjusting their strategy.
Lawmakers have written into the annual National Defense Authorization Act plans to entrench Israel’s military and arms manufacturing into the U.S. military-industrial complex, its research and development at universities, and the Pentagon itself.
In effect, it would embed the Israeli military deeply in the U.S. system in a way the public could not control.
In an article for The Guardian, Eli Clifton and Ian Lustick, authors of a new book on “America in the Grip of a Foreign Power: Israel’s Lobby” detail the legislation’s origins with sponsorship by Sen. Ted Budd, R-NC, and Reps. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, and Don Davis, D-NC. Two pro-Israel groups, AIPAC and the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, pushed the legislative language into the massive $1 trillion NDAA bill.
According to Clifton and Lustick, it would transfer “America’s most sophisticated technologies” to the Israeli government, “quietly steering the relationship away from patronage or even partnership and toward something more asymmetrical: a structure designed to harness American power for the aims of ‘Zionism 2.0.’”
